Many hands make light work, Thank you thank you thank you!

There are many, many people to thank for the success of this year's SpringNRO. I'm sure I'll forget to mention some people, but please let me know about it and I'll send out a follow-up.

I'd like to start with the people who attended the event. Without the support and participation of so many people, the Spring NRO wouldn't have been nearly as much fun, and for the organizers would not have felt as worthwhile. We had a total attendance of about 230. Next year, with no Mother's Day conflict and hopefully a better weather forecast, the NRO gathering may reach 300. Thank you all for being a part of the Spring 2000 NRO. Hope to see you next year.

Thanks also to the Cobleskill Fairgrounds people. Our request to rent part of the facility was enthusiastically received, and the Fairgrounds staff were all a pleasure to work with. Jo-Anne in the office, Morris the custodian, and the grounds crew who cut the grass were all very helpful at all times.

Thank you also to the vendors: IMO, Bob & Bob, Speleobooks, and Guadalupe Mountain Lampworks. It was pretty cool to have Vendor's Row at an NRO. My apologies to them for not having the foresight to ask them to setup inside the building. If the NRO returns to Cobleskill (and I think it will) I'm sure we'll use the Progressland building more efficiently.

And now, for the people who did the heavy lifting:

• Registration: John Hall, Diane Reichert (the designer of the name tags),and everyone who took a turn at the registration table
• Guidebook: Sean Ryan
• Treasurer: John Hall (he'll be busy for a while)
• Advertising: Dave Hall
• Cave trips: Chris Nicola (thanks for smoothing out the guidebook glitch)
• Website: Jonny Slumpff
• Mexican Dinner: Andrew Foord & Northern New Jersey Grotto
• Saturday Breakfast: Tom Oakes & Met Grotto
• Sunday Breakfast: Steve Janesky & Central Connecticut Grotto
• Hot Tub & Sauna: Mark Skove, Francois Errandonea, Wayne Russell, Rick Orben
• Vertical: Peter Haberland
• Slide Show: Peter Jones
• Invaluable advice from previous NROs: Peter Welles, Chris Nicola

Special thanks to Emily Davis, Mike Warner, and Peter Haberland who supplied last minute cave trip release forms, keys and sign-up sheets. We weren't nearly as organized with this as we should have been.

And finally, thanks to everyone who led a cave trip, helped with the set up, bagged the garbage and swept out the building. When I locked up on Sunday afternoon, the place looked as good as I'd found it on Friday morning.

Sincerely,

Mark Stover

Spring 2000 NRO Chair